


Destiny

by CherryBlossomMonologues



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, F/M, Human Experimentation, Pheromones, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:24:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherryBlossomMonologues/pseuds/CherryBlossomMonologues
Summary: Bill Mulder volunteers his teenage son Fox for an unconventional experiment.





	Destiny

**Author's Note:**

> Written circa 1999-2001. Never previously posted.

A Paris lounge in one of the wealthiest hotels of that city, chosen for both privacy and comfort.  They reclined there, smoking cigarettes, drinking fine brandy, the powers behind the throne in more than five-dozen countries.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, it must be done.  I know him.  There must be distraction; otherwise, he will become restless...in short, a nuisance to the cause."

"There are certain advantages..."

"Yes, cloning has obvious weaknesses in this case.  Such prolonged, intense contact would be dangerous."

"An interesting, clever solution, and ruthless, even for you."

"Then we are agreed?"

"Gentlemen!  But surely the mind is more powerful than the body!  Animal attraction, physical desire is one thing, but, a higher ideal, the search for the truth, is another altogether!  I'm sorry, Bill, I cannot condone it."

"Then she whom we select must challenge his mind as well as his body." 

"Ah, that may be the answer we have been looking for.  Someone to contest and mitigate his excesses if she cannot seduce him into her bed."

"A woman of great beauty and piercing intelligence that will draw him to her like a siren.  From where do you suggest we acquire this divine creature?"

"Perhaps we could condone a small amount of constructive intervention in her life...especially if she is easily accessible, the daughter of a military officer, say."

"Besides, many people are intelligent, and she need not be appealing to everyone.  Just him.  We will have to run some genetic comparisons to locate conceivable matches."

"Yet genes are not destiny.  We all know that.  We shall need to run field tests also to confirm our selection.  Why not choose, say, five possibilities to be tested at a later date?"

"Eminently logical."

"Does that suit you, Bill?"

"Hmm, it seems to be an effective solution, though I fear the compromise."

"Life is a compromise, my friend."

"Very well.  We will meet again in three-month's time.  Gentlemen, my regards."

They disbanded slowly, speaking to each other in hushed, firm voices.  The low volume of their tones bellied the burden of purpose that they carried upon their shoulders.  They filtered out of the Paris lounge surreptitiously, so as not to attract undue attention.          

Unnoticed by the others, one of the men motioned to his fellow, the man called Bill.  This Bill had an arresting presence, more commanding than classically handsome.  He stood to his full six feet in height, yet his confident demeanor was somewhat mediated by the expression of distrust upon every one of his features.  His compatriot, completely unperturbed by Bill's obvious lack of faith, placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I have some advice, Bill, freely given."

"Nothing is free, Jake."

"Few things in this world are without cost, but this is one of them.  I know how you feel about your children.  Any true parent should feel the same, but you must not jeopardize the sanctity of the Project.  You know that we stole the life of your daughter, yes, we did, no matter how we might like to think that we were saving her.  Now, you want to take the freedom of your only other child, you son.  You must be careful, lest you destroy what you try to save."

"You think I am so foolhardy?  I am not some silly novice at the game.  I would not say this to anyone except you; Jake, I want Fox to have a companion.  He has always been moody, prone to depression, but since the loss of his sister, he seems to wallow constantly in darkness.  This woman must be the day to his night...she must become a physical manifestation of everything that he ever hopes to accomplish, and she must be courageous enough to drag him bodily out of the devil's embrace.  Otherwise, I am afraid he will commit suicide long before he learns of the Project."

"It may be deadly to him."

"Of course.  It is dangerous, this game we play.  But without the risk, there can be no gain."

"Then I wish you luck, Bill, and hope you don't regret it."

***

He was cold, and his body hurt in ways he refused to allow himself to think about.  The darkness was a welcome respite after the blinding light and searing pain.  Groaning, a seventeen-year-old Fox Mulder tried to lift his aching body off of the floor and failed miserably.  The floor underneath him was of a strange texture; it had a metallic feel, but it had the give of a firm pillow and the springiness of a trampoline.  It was exceedingly difficult to balance upon, but he was not injured further when he fell back heavily upon it.

"Oh, shit," he moaned.  "Isn't there someone who can help me?"

He did not expect an answer.  He had be poked and prodded and punctured for what seemed like days on end.  There were implants of some sort in his body, one up his nose, another just under the skin on the back of his neck, and one other in an unthinkable, terribly personal place.  Now, they were leaving him alone like a sacrifice awaiting the altar.

It had been a lifetime ago, it seemed, since he had been taken.  He remembered little, except that he had been filling out an application to Oxford.  Then, a bright light, flashing red and blue, had surrounded him, whisking him away to places unknown.  He vaguely recalled hearing a voice telling him not to worry; he would not be harmed.  Of course, and then there were the implants.  Now, he found himself...here...wherever "here" was.

"Good Lord, we have another one!"  A horrified voice sounded close to his left ear.  Surely, it was a dream.  Or a nightmare.

"No, no, don't hurt me anymore.  Please, don't hurt me.  I won't do anything; I won't resist anymore.  Please, just don't do anything more to me," the boy begged, close to tears.  He didn't know if he could survive another regimen of tests.

"Shh, don't cry," another, softer voice admonished gently.  "It'll be all right.  You won't be hurt, I promise.  The worst is over," the voice cooed.  Soft, delicate hands grasped him by the shoulders.  Fox flinched and tried to push the owner of the hands away from him.  He heard a soft, feminine cry.

"Don't worry, I'll deal with him," a deeper, more masculine voice assured an unseen presence.  Strong arms lifted him up off his back.  He sat upright.  "Close your eyes," the voice instructed, brooking no room for disobedience.  The hands disappeared, and he felt something being ripped painfully off of his face.  "Okay, now slowly, open them."

Fox allowed his eyes to open gradually.  Harsh, white light filled his vision and poured through the opennings between his eyelids.  He snapped his eyes shut again and instinctively fell forward, attempting to protect his eyes.  "That's right," a voice like wind and music comforted him.  "You don't want to have permanent retinal damage."  Someone caught him before he had curled up completely into a ball, and he felt warm arms around him enfolding him in a sweet, tender, yet firm, embrace.  A hand cradled the back of his head and returned him to his a horizontal position.

He groaned again, making a second attempt to open his eyes.  He was more successful in this endeavor than in any previous since he had found himself in these strange surroundings.  Through the almost unbearable white light, he imagined that he saw the faces of five girls hovering worriedly over his prone form.  But perhaps he was mistaken.  Sighing, he felt his mind start to shut off.  His eyelids began to droop and he did not fight exhaustion that fell over him.

"That's right.  Sleep.  You'll feel much stronger after you rest," the wind voice said.  It was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.

***

Two unseen observers watched the five girls care for the seventeen year old from a one-way window at the apex of the dome above their unknowing heads.  The experimental environment had been specially prepared by the best.  It consisted of two inverted domes, one forming the hill of the floor and the other forming the dome of the ceiling.  There were no sharp edges and every surface was soft, to insure, inasmuch as anything in this world is guaranteed, that the subjects would not damage themselves, either inadvertently or purposefully.  White light emanated from every surface of the chamber, and tiny wells at the lowest points on the floor delivered food and water thrice daily.  Environmental distractions were at a minimum, and the floor was ingenious, allowing all of their subjects to be kept together in the same chamber without necessarily being within a constant line of sight.  The faces of the observers were impassive, studying Fox's suffering and the girls' compassionate reaction with uncaring, clinical eyes.

"Wiring and monitoring systems have just been installed.  We'll know everything that that boy feels and when he feels it...it will almost be like reading his mind," assured one of the men, the smaller of the two, an overweight, suspicious man, turning to the other.

"Very good.  By the way, I never received final confirmation.  Tell me, whom did we eventually decide upon?" the taller man asked the first.

The head researcher blanched at his superior's deceptively amiable tone.  "Oh, oh, oh...please forgive me, sir.  I'm so sorry.  I didn't know.  They told me they had been notified.  I..."  Seeing an impatient look manifest upon the face of his companion, he continued hurriedly.  "Actually, we had some difficulty deciding upon just five.  There were so many viable females at a compatible age.  Eventually, we decided upon selecting girls that were remarkable in some way.  Only the best for him.  I won't bore you with the details, but each has a special talent or ability, although I suppose the word, "ability" is a bit too strong when referring to one of them...Heh.  Well, in any case, we were able to acquire them; we had found it necessary to engage in light to moderate intervention in the lives of each subject...to make her more suitable, with plausible deniability, of course.  They have been wired carefully, so we will be able to monitor their vital signs while in experimental custody.  After the experiment is concluded, we will remove the implants and return them." The mad scientist seemed quite pleased with his experimental design. 

"And they will not remember this, correct?"

"Of course not.  We'll blank them before putting them back.  Don't worry.  They won't remember any of it."

"Good.  I do not want them getting back together twenty year later, recounting wild abduction stories, selling their tales of bondage and woe to the National Enquirer.  I also want the boy's memory wiped.  He must not remember the woman he chooses under any circumstances.  The integrity of what we desire to accomplish would be compromised tremendously."

"Assuredly.  You have my word.  This should be quite stimulating to the boy, while he remembers it, that is."

The observers indulged in a smirk before returning their gazes to the tableau below them.

***

"Hey, are you hungry?  They brought us food.  It isn't the greatest stuff in the world, but you probably need it.  I bet you're hungry."  Fox Mulder awoke to the face of a girl of about his age, gazing at him with an impish gleam in her yellow eyes.  He smelled something being waved under his nose; more than anything, it reminded him of overcooked oatmeal.

"C'mon," the teasing voice prodded him.  "I'm not giving you any unless you get up."

Fox sat painfully up, squinting at the light.  The girl smirked at him.  She had shoulder-length, blond hair that matched perfectly the hue of her eyes.  In her hands was a grayish, slimy substance that actually seemed to bubble on its own accord like giant protozoan straight out of an old horror movie.

"That can't be the food you were talking about."

She nodded.

"I changed my mind.  I'm not hungry.  Besides, I refuse to eat anything that moves by itself."

"Now, now, young man." Her voice took on a playfully serious tone.  "Tem says you have to eat it to regain your strength, and one does what the lady storm says or suffer the heavenly smite of her wrath.  Here, give me your hand."  When he hesitated, she grabbed it and smeared some of the mush into it.  "Eat up."

Fox did not see any utensils forthcoming.  Hesitantly, he licked the goo on his hand.  It tasted as bad, no worse, than it looked.  It reminded him of bread soaked in water and liquid vitamin supplements, which, after considering the matter for a moment, was most likely exactly what it was.

The girl, for her part, rose from her knees and began pirouetting gracefully and leaping around him.  She laughed, using the remaining food on her hands to decorate her face and hair with savage streaks and designs.  She must be some kind of fairy or elf, Fox thought irrationally to himself.  That's what they're doing, they're collecting samples of intelligent life.  I must be their representative human.  Oh, get a grip.  She's speaking perfect, American English.  Look, she doesn't even have elf ears.  Or wings.  Or pointed shoes.  Or silver bells.  Come to think of it, she isn't wearing anything except a white hospital gown.  Or something.  Which is what I'm wearing, too.

Shaking himself, Fox forced himself out of his reverie.  "Hey, what's your name?" he asked the fey girl that continued to dance around him. 

She laughed and did not answer.  Instead, she sang eerily in his ears, her hot breath stirring his hair, "I am the kitten, graceful, playful, furry...with claws."  She made a teasing swipe at his face.  Fox dodged easily and grabbed her wrist.

"Is your name Kitty?" he asked with a touch of impatience.

"Sure, you can call me that.  Lily does," her nose wrinkled slightly.  "Come meet the others; they've been wanting to talk with you."  Grinning madly, the golden girl dragged him forward and up toward the center of the chamber.

***

"Greetings, Fox, my name is Rose," Fox took the hand of the dark-skinned goddess before him hesitantly.  She clasped his hand warmly, and he suddenly found himself far more at ease.  "I'm sorry that we must meet under such...unnatural surroundings."

She's gorgeous, Fox thought to himself, and she seems nice, too.  I could happily spend the rest of my entire life in her arms.  She belongs on the cover of a magazine.  What could she be doing here?  Aloud, he said, attempting without much success to keep the tremor caused by the sudden rush of sexual desire that spread like quicksilver through him, "Thank-you, Rose.  I'm sorry, too." 

Motioning to the three other girls that stood protectively around her, Rose smiled a beautiful, thousand watt smile.  "Perdóneme.  Quiero presentarle a...ay, ¡lo siento mucho!  I always forget when I'm excited not to speak in my mother tongue.  Please, allow me to introduce you to the other girls.  This is Tempest.  Lily.  I believe you have already met Kitty."  Each of the other three girls followed their unofficial leader's lead and shook hands with Fox.

With a touch of impatience, Fox returned his gaze to Rose.  Concentrate.  Don't let your hormones control you.  "Why are we here, Rose?  Do you know?"

"I'm sorry, Fox.  I don't know.  None of us do.  We were hoping that you had the answers."  Her eyes darkened slightly with disappointment at his now-obvious ignorance.

Sighing in resignation, he murmured, "What am I supposed to do?  If you don't know, then-"

A loud, resonant voice interrupted his thoughts.  It was Tempest, and Fox immediately recognized her as the one who had ripped the blindfold off of his eyes.  "Hey, where's Star?  Doesn't she want to meet the conscious version of the guy she's been holding in her arms for the past two meals?"

"Go get her, Tem," Rose instructed.

Fox blinked.  "Ah, so there is five of you," he remarked, leveling a calm gaze at Rose, Lily, and Kitty, each in turn.

"Sure.  Five are still alive," Kitty laughed at him.

Tempest returned from an extreme end of the chamber looking exceedingly annoyed and confrontational.  "She won't budge.  Do you want me to drag her over here?  It'd be really easy, and it wouldn't hurt her a bit.  Serve the aloof thing right, anyway." 

"No, don't make Star do anything that she doesn't want to do," Rose admonished.

"I don't get it," Tem looked apologetically at Fox, "she held that boy all that time, and now she won't go near him."  

***

They were all attractive, each in her own sort of way. 

Rose looked like a Roman marble statue come to life.  If someone were to tell him that she was the statue that the Roman goddess Venus had brought to life as a gift to one of her favorite worshipers, Fox would have not questioned.  Her skin was the rich color of coffee and cream, and her tight, wiry curls were a dark cap over her head.  She had large, dark eyes and full lips, and at six feet and twenty years old, she was just as magnificent and intimidating as a goddess herself.  Fox was sure that she had to be some kidnapped princess; she had the languid grace of nobility and a natural ability to lead.  The other girls deferred almost unconsciously to her.  He suspected that she was the only thing that kept order in this strange, forbidding place.

Even Tem respected her.  Fox wondered at the kind of parents that could name their daughter "Tempest", but he had to admit that she was exceedingly well named.  A black belt three years before her age had achieved double digits, she was a fierce and violent as her name.  There was nothing soft or gentle about her; she was always in motion.  With her almond eyes and sharply cut bangs, she seemed unforgiving, even cruel.  Yet Fox had to admit that he found her entrancing.  Her physical strength and equally iron will made him think of a proud warrior that would never compromise her code of honor.

And Kitty...well, Kitty was Kitty.  The little golden girl was wild, untamed, and completely uncaring of every social more that Fox's mother had ever indoctrinated into him.  He did not know her age for every time he asked, she gave him a different number.  He had been right to call her fey; she was as likely to straddle him around the waist and kiss him as kick him in the groin (both of which she had already done).  Luckily, she did not have the strength of Tem.  At times, though, he found her immediacy and passion intoxicating, and the fact that she was able to find innumerable wonders in a place like this charmed him.

They had a poet, too.  Lily.  She was albino, but it did not disturb him in the least.  Her whiteness suited her, actually, and accentuated her delicacy.  She had white curls that followed her like a bridal train, and her pinkish eyes were gentle and kind.  Though she was almost as tall as Rose, she had none of the older girl's voluptuousness.  Lily looked waifish, undernourished, but it was clear that whatever physical ailments had afflicted her did not affect her mind.  She spoke in prose and poetry, her beautiful voice captivating the others.  Fox often found himself close to tears when he listened to her; it made him desperately want to protect her.

Yeah, they were all really beautiful.  Downright gorgeous, truth be told.  It wasn't just the looks...there was something about the girls, something that made Fox want to wrap his arms compulsively around each of them.  They were all wonderful human beings, surprisingly innocent and almost too perfect.  Each appealed to a different part of him, urging that part to come out of its shell and grow.  He felt drawn to them like iron to a lodestone...or a moth to a flame.  Come to think of it, it probably wasn't a healthy situation.  Better to keep a distance.  Don't know what'll happen. 

Wait a minute...forgot about her.  Okay, strike the previous stuff.  Almost all of them are irresistible.  Her name was Star.  Cold Shoulder would have been better.  She must have said exactly three words to him for the entire time that they had been held in this chamber.  Most of the time, she sat off by herself, making unknown marks on the semi-soft wall. 

It had been one of the stupidest things he had done in his life.  He had been sitting, eating that horrible excuse for food, watching her write on the wall with her finger.  She had hair like flame and gold mixed together, falling in gentle waves down her back, pooling like liquid behind her.  Suddenly, he realized that he wanted to touch it.  Before he knew what he was doing, he had his hand on her hair.  The glare that she had fixed upon him was like arctic ice.  Wow, Fox remembered thinking, gazing dazedly into her sky blue eyes, Fire and ice.

"Leave me alone," Star had said.  Then she turned back to the wall as if he had never touched her.

Fox couldn't really blame the girl for her defensiveness.  She couldn't be more than a day over fourteen, definitely making her the youngest.  Kitty, however old she was, was not fourteen.  Poor girl; she must be terrified, not knowing what's going on here, he told himself, feeling charitable.

Hell, I don't know what's going on here.

***

Although he hated to admit it, Fox was beginning to enjoy the time he spent with the girls.  In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, they were engaging, interesting people with extensive knowledge between them.  Rose taught them how to sing like professionals and entertained them with her decade of ballet practice.  Lily discussed works of literature and classical philosophy and recounted stories of her own creation, transporting them from the monotonous world of their imprisonment to countless others.  They practiced martial arts with Tempest and learned how to fight with honor.  Kitty...well, Kitty reminded them all how to have fun. 

Star, of course, continued to ignore them.

"Saben, mis amiguitos," Rose smiled, "If we weren't being held against our will here, I would be in heaven right now.  I would never have met such wonderful people on my own."

"You can have that, Rose.  All we have to do is get out of here.  There has got to be a way out of here.  We've been here for at least three months, as far as I can tell with the feeding schedule.  I'm going crazy with this.  I don't know how much more I can stand." Tem was the most disturbed by their situation.  Fox suspected that it was her nature for hers was a soul bonded as tightly to the warp and weft of the fabric of life as a newborn babe to her mother.  This unnatural place tore at her heart, yet he knew that she could be held no more than summer lightning; any who tried to control her courted their doom.

"Oh, come on.  Enjoy the moment.  Rose is right; we never would have met up otherwise.  We should have fun while it lasts," Kitty cajoled, uncaring of their plight.

"But what if it never ends?" Fox asked, worried.  "For all we know, we could be here for the rest of our lives.  If we can figure out what our captors want from us, then maybe we will have some chance of getting out of this hole!"

He thought he heard a snort.

"If you have something to contribute, Star, then say it."  Rose's voice was calm and encouraging, and she faced the flame-haired girl on the side of the chamber.

The girl shook her head and turned away.

"Anyway, as I was saying, if we can find out what they want from us, then we will have a better handle on what our options are.  We have to be here for a reason.  They wouldn't take us for no reason."

Lily fixed her eyes sadly upon Fox's.  "Some questions are better left unanswered," she whispered.

***

The conversation was fruitless.  It was obvious that no one really knew anything.  Fox curled up into a fetal position on the floor and thought of home.  He wished for Samantha, his lost sister, and the games they had played as children.  It had been a happy time, a time without worries or fears.  And then, she was gone.  Feeling fatalistic, he imagined his sister in a place like the one he presently found himself in, with a group of others of similar ages, eating that awful gruel with no one else to talk to except her fellow captives.  For five years.  If she ever came out of it, what would she be like?  He moaned in agony, just imagining it.  She would be stagnated, her personality, her very spirit incomplete.  For a moment, he almost wished she were dead, rather than suffer this.

"Are you all right?" A sweet voice interrupted his thoughts.  Lily crouched behind him, her hand on his shoulder.  "I heard you cry out in pain.  You aren't sick, are you?"

"No, its nothing."

There was an awkward silence.

"Your name.  Fox.  It's an unusual name.  Is it a family name?"

"Nah, it's my given name.  You know, I've always hated it.  I used to ask my parents, 'Why Fox? Couldn't it have been normal, like Michael, Chris, or John?'"

"Well, I think it's a lovely name.  Names are very important; they are the sum total of our identity.  Try to imagine yourself without any name.  Could you truly claim to exist among other, named beings?  I think not.  The Fox is a clever, wise being.  It does not directly confront its enemies; it waits, watches, finds their weaknesses, and only then goes for the kill.  In Japan, there are foxwomen called kitsune, and they are renowned for both beauty and trickery.  I see that you are an intelligent, perceptive, sensitive man.  Yes, I believe your name suits you very well, whether or not you think the same."  Lily smiled warmly and stood up, about to leave Fox again to his thoughts.  Her long, white hair brushed softly against him.

"Hey, Lily, what is this thing with names, anyway?  Is it just a coincidence that everyone here has a nature-based name that 'suits' him or her?" he asked suddenly, beckoning her back.

She turned, her smile growing brighter.  "Well, in your case, yes, it is a coincidence.  Fox, we had been here for a long time before you.  We were afraid, and we didn't trust each other.  We each thought that the others were responsible for our suffering.  Rose insisted that we find some way to connect.  I came up with the idea of names.  We would name each other appropriately.  So, we all spent awhile talking, getting to know the others.  It was a good way to break through walls.  We learned to trust each other.  After we felt familiar our personalities and proclivities enough, we had a naming ceremony.  All of the names were from nature to make symbolism easier for the uninitated.  We gave the name Rose to our leader because she is as beautiful, both inside and out, as a rose; she stands out from the rest of us.  She is a romantic, and a red rose is a symbol of love.  Tem was named for the tempest, the wind that destroys.  It cannot be restrained nor directed; it answers to none.  Kitty, of course, it as playful and carefree and loveable as a kitten.  Star is a comely girl, a light in darkness.  She is as pure, cool, and distant as a star.  The others named me Lily, for the flower that represents purity and whiteness."

Fox was speechless.  Lily's recounting of the naming ritual had been spellbinding for reasons other than its simple, spare language.  He thought of his sister again, and felt a rush of hope.  If these girls could have done the beautiful, enriching thing that they had done, in trying circumstances at best, perhaps his sister did have a chance, after all.  "Thank you very much for telling me.  I really appreciate it."

"There is nothing to thank."

Silence again, this time warm and amiable.

"Lily, may I ask you another question?"

"Of course."

"Star.  Was she always like this?  Is something wrong with her?"

"We don't know, Fox.  She became very withdrawn shortly after you appeared...I doubt she's said much to you."

"Next to nothing."

Lily looked worried suddenly and slightly uncomfortable.  "I didn't want to say anything before, but I think Star knows something that she isn't telling us.  I think she knows something about why we're here.  But, oh, I fear!  If she refuses to speak it aloud, it must be terrible indeed!"

Surprised at this revelation, Fox asked uncertainly, "Do you think I can talk to her and find out what she knows?"

"I...I don't know.  She is stubborn as a mule, and she may not take well to your overtures."

"Well, it might be worth a try.  Let me go now."

"No, not now.  Try later.  She's sleeping now.  I saw her."

"Later."

***

 It was later.  Fox was nervous.  He felt like a fool, terrified and awed by a diminutive girl approximately three years younger than he.  Despite what should have been the secure knowledge that he towered a head and shoulders over her, he felt shrunken under the overbearing weight of her azure gaze.  Taking a deep breath and swallowing the bile he could feel rising in his throat, he approached the her.  She was, as always, absorbing in the strange marks she was making on the wall.  He found himself mesmerized by what he saw.  The graffiti was actually hundreds of math problems, all thoroughly solved, derived, and analyzed.  The wall had become her chalkboard; with a single sweep of her finger, she could make impressions on the glowing, pliant surface or, with hard, firm pressure from palm of her hand, erase those same marks.

Coughing gently, so as not to surprise her and also to relieve as much of his tension as possible, Fox addressed Star hesitantly, "Um, Star, may I ask you a question?"

"Leave me alone." She did not even turn to look at him.

"Please, allow me to speak."

"Go away."

"Is anything wrong?"

"I'm fine.  I'd appreciate it if you'd stay away from me."

"Why?  Is it something I did?  Do I disgust you that much?"  He felt an irrational anger well up in the pit of his stomach.

To Fox's utter shock, Star stood up and faced him abruptly.  She had sky blue eyes, the kind that he felt he could fall headlong into.  The eyes did not seem angry...they seemed...haunted and frightened.  But quickly, the look disappeared, leaving only resignation and ice. 

"No, it's not that.  Why would I have reason to dislike you?  I hardly know you.  You're handsome, and you've treated me with nothing but the utmost respect.  No, it's not that."  Star sighed and faced her work again.  "But, there's more going on here than anyone knows, except maybe the person who created all this."  Her hand motioned absently to their surroundings.  "It's far better if you stay away from me."  She sounded sad.

"But why?!  What is it that you know?!"  Desperation and frustration.

Her sadness deepened.  "I'm sorry.  It's better that you do not know."

It was the last straw; Fox found himself completely unable to bite back his furious words.  "Damn you!  How dare you!  What are you trying to do, determine my destiny for me?!  I'm sick of your half answers and verbal evasion."  Without realizing it, he had grabbed her shoulders, holding her tight within the circle of his arms.  "I want an answer, and I think you have it!  So, I'll ask one more time...nicely...and so help me, if you continue with this shit--"

Star's eyes had gone blank the moment he had taken hold of her, but her face was flushed a delicate pink, and her muscles were stiff.  She did not fight him, nor did she allow him to feel that he had any power over her.  When she spoke, her voice was like an arctic wind blowing upon his lightly-clothed body.  "It's an experiment.  It's like when a company tests its products.  They have several different varieties and then they have people try them out and tell them which they prefer...are you catching my drift?"

"No, what are you trying to say?"  He shook her.

"Someone, I don't know who, wants to see which of us you'll fuck first."

***

"What?!"

"You heard me loud and clear the first time."

Star's face was calm and clear, though he could still feel the stiffness of her body under his hands.  Fox stared in sudden horror at the girl, and feeling an irrational revulsion well up in his stomach, he pushed her away.  Hard.

She stumbled back into the wall, leaving an imprint of her back on it.  It caught her like a benevolent parent and did not allow her to fall.  Sighing, Star sank down onto her knees, her long, alburn locks falling over her face, hiding it from his view.

"How...how do you know?"  He stared down at her.

Hesitantly, she brushed her hair back from her face.  Her lip trembled for a moment, and she did not immediately respond.  She gazed thoughtfully up at him.  Finally, she spoke, hesitantly at first and then with increasing confidence.  "It all started when I tried to figure out how long we had been here.  We're fed at evenly spaced intervals; there isn't, as far as I can tell, a built in fast that would normally occur at night.  So, it didn't seem like the most practical way to judge time over a long term basis.  The best I could do was 'thirty-fourth meal and counting.'  I knew there had to be some other way."  She stopped, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Please, go on."

Inhaling deeply, Star continued.  "As I'm sure you know, all females capable of bearing children have a calendar.  Mine, like many other women, is exactly twenty-eight days.  I was due a week after they took me, but I have not menstruated since I've been here, and I'm sure that you alone have been here for more than a week.  Somehow, someone has stopped my and, I think, the other girls' cycles dead it their tracks.  Look at us.  We're wearing white dressing gowns and no undergarments.  The floor is light.  Blood of any type would stand out.  I haven't seen any.  I doubt you have either.

"Anyway, I couldn't understand why that would be.  Until you came.  It didn't occur to me immediately, but you are the anomaly among us.  A male with five females.  It feels like a harem." She sounded disgusted.  "It's obvious that the person or persons that put us here want us to have sexual intercourse without procreation.  And, since you are the only male, it would seem that the choice hinges on you."

Fox couldn't move.  He couldn't say anything.  What this girl was saying was too unthinkable.  To select a girl like she were some common merchandise!  Besides, even if there did choose one, what in the world could be the purpose!?  He refused to look Star in the eyes.

Star stood up and forced him to meet her gaze.  He felt strongly-held convictions floating just beneath the surface.  Star had a code of honor as surely as Tem.  "Whomever you choose, just make sure I'm not the one.  I don't want it."  Without a backward glance, she walked away, bending down to the water welling out of a wall to drink.

***

There was a light, a blinding light.  Star screamed as she felt herself falling, falling, falling into nothingness, water pouring painfully out of her nose and mouth.

She heard Fox cry out, "Star!"

Her body went numb.

***

"Star!"  Fox cried, unable to turn away from the pure, white light that lifted Star up high into the air and swallowed her whole.  He reached out for her, ignoring the fire that shot through his hands when they came in contact with the light, her screams piercing his heart in a manner that he did not quite understand.

Abruptly, the light was gone.  The silence after her shrieking was terrible, a deadly, oppressive void that left Fox feeling somehow empty.  He fell to his knees, ignoring the water that soaked through is dressing gown, moaning and cradling his burnt hands.

The other girls were around him suddenly, dragging him out from under the stream of the water.  He tried to force them from him, causing Rose to gasp in pain as he twisted her arm.  Tem grasped him by the shoulders and shook him.  Her liquid brown eyes were fierce.  "Fox, tell us what happened.  We heard Star's screams and saw the light.  Where is she?"

"Gone...gone..."

"What do you mean?  Where did she go?"  Tem shouted at him.

"I couldn't stop them.  I was right there, and I couldn't stop them.  They took her, and I was right there.  They did it again.  I can't stand it!  I couldn't help her!  Like Samantha.  Like my sister.  She's gone.  Gone!"  Fox rocked back and forth, staring at the ground.  He let madness seep into him mind, a welcome guest.  He couldn't stand it happening again.  He felt his mind begin to shut down.

Fox felt a stinging slap land on his right cheek.  Tem.  Again.  "Snap out of it!  You can't help her if you don't pull yourself together." There was fury in her voice and a touch of contempt.  No, she doesn't like weakness, he thought.  Not at all.  Go away Tem.  I don't want you.

"She's right, you know."  Rose.  "Star needs you right now, needs you to tell us what you know.  Star is a strong, proud girl.  She wouldn't want you like this over her."  Fox stopped rocking and lifted his gaze up to meet that of Rose.  Her eyes were soft, compassionate, and her rich, coffee and cream skin actually glowed.  He took a deep breath.

"I don't know.  Really.  I don't.  She was taking a drink right here, and a bright light lifted her up into the air."  Fox paused, remembering the horrible beauty of the scene.  "And she was screaming.  I reached up into the light, trying to grab her and pull her back down, but the light burned me.  Then, it got even brighter, and I fell backward.  When I thought surely such light couldn't exist, it went out.  And Star had just...disappeared.  As if she never were...I'm so sorry...I couldn't save her."

"Don't blame yourself.  There's nothing you could have done,"  Rose said softly, running her fingers through Fox's thick, brown locks.

"But that's the whole point, don't you see?!  It's like what happened to my sister.  I was helpless, and now she's gone.  Gone!"  He curled up into a fetal position again, clutching his chest at the pain that lanced through it, a dozen silver razors shredding his insides.

The four remaining females remained protectively at his side.  Rose embraced his huddled form and caressed his forehead.  Lily sat at his side and rested her hand gently upon his shoulder.  Tem leaned back on her heels, unconsciously assuming a the stance of a warrior at rest but still on guard.  Though she remained within touching distance ot the other girls, her vision focused on the chamber beyond them, waiting patiently for something to show itself and challenge her duty of protection. 

It was Kitty, however, that haunted the dreams of Fox.  She danced around them all for what must have been hours, hair and gown swirling around her like dancing partners, singing in a bell-like, childish sorprano, "Gone...gone...gone..."

***

"Dana Katherine Scully.  Welcome to the chance of a lifetime."

A round, broad face stared down at Star, grinning insanely.  She whimpered, remembering the pain of the light. 

"That's right, sweetheart.  You should be coming out of it now."  The doctor continued to grin down at her, and as he spoke, she could smell a sour, unwashed tinge to his breath.

She sat slowly up, slowly absorbing the new, strange surroundings.  Or rather, surroundings that she would have normally found to be completely normal, had she not been kept in that...place for God knows how long.  The room was rectangular, and a strange, intricate-looking machine occupied one whole side of the room.  Five reams of paper rolled slowly out of it, pooling haphazardly onto the floor.  The machines seemed to be printing something on the paper, but she couldn't see any of the words on it.  There was what seemed to be a large window, opposite to the machine, but it was curtained off with some kind of nondescript, gray-black cloth, and she could not see what was beyond it, if anything.  The walls too were gray-black, unadorned and unloved.  There were five metal fold up chairs, scattered about the room in no discernable pattern.  She was actually lying on a matching, fold up table.  Star felt hysterical laughter rising in her throat at the utter banality of her present location.

"Feeling better, I take it.  Now, lets get down to business.  I want to know how you found out about the experiment, and I want you to explain to me right now why I shouldn't terminate you."  The man grinned at her again.  He was a grotesque, obese creature, practically bursting out of his lab coat.  He continued to grin, forcing his jowls against his neck and squeezing his eyes nearly closed.  Now that she was upright, it was apparent that he was no taller than she.  Star assumed him to be the man who was experimenting on them.  She immediately detested him.

Feeling the anger that arose from her captivity, Star slid off the table and faced the man.  Yes, he was exactly her height.  She advanced with fury upon him, and, to her delight, he backed up at the onslaught of her wrath.  "How dare you?  How could you lock us all up as if we were no more than animals?  How could anybody be so inhumane?"

"Now, now, young lady, let us not be hasty here..."  The scientist smiled a panicked, strained grimace.  "You don't want to do anything you'll regret now..."

"Mr. Jameston is correct.  You must act rationally, Miss Scully."

A tall man stood by the door.  Star had not seen him enter, was unable to figure out how he could have entered.  He was middle-aged but still quite handsome, and she felt an attraction toward him that defied all logic and reason.  It was not an overpowering feeling, but there nonetheless.  Swallowing hard, she slam-dunked the feeling beneath the weight of all her other current concerns.

"Who are you anyway?  Why did you choose me, of all people?"

The man ignored her answers and crossed the small room to stand by the curtained window.  He allowed his fingers to graze the cloth gently.  He did not look at her.  "Mr. Jameston was right, Miss Scully.  It isn't everyday that one has power over destiny."

***

She was very precise.  At the very least.  Fox stared at the writing that Star had left on the wall, the sole testament to her existence.  It was amazing.  She had factored out a 23rd degree polynomial expression by hand over the set of complex numbers complete with an exacting, detailed graph of its behavior.  A short distance away, she had been proving some of the essential theorems of non-Euclidian geometry on the curved surfaces of their prison.  He also saw the beginnings of a physics experiment partially drawn over the geometry.  It seemed that she had been attempting to find the kinetic coefficient of friction between this strange floor material and dehydrated food.  She even knew the exact length of her hand and had been using it to make measurements.  She had been analyzing and extending the data using some elementary calculus when Fox had first interrupted her with his questions.  He ran his hand very lightly over the meticulous, ordered markings, wondering whether or not she would be angered if he finished the calculations for her.

"Don't do this to yourself," the rich tones of a cello insinuated themselves into his thoughts.

"Go away, Rose.  I don't want to talk right now."  He didn't even look at her.

"Please don't shut me out, Fox.  It won't help her if you do the same thing she did."

"Oh, you don't know what you're talking about.  Star was right.  I didn't want to know."

"What?  What didn't you want to know?  That we were all meant to love you?  Is that it?"

Fox tried hard to veil his surprise, but still, it registered on his face.

Rose saw it.  "Yes, it is.  Star is not the only one who can divine things.  Dios mío, how could I not feel it?  It is pure love that I feel for you.  Powerful, unbridled, completely uncalled-for.  But there, just the same."  She sat down beside him and ran her fingers seductively over her own body, down over the tips of her breasts and between her legs.  Gracefully, and without a touch of shame, she lifted the white slip off of her body and lay it down beside her.  Her body was beautiful; her rich, brown skin glowed with almost tangible warm and sensuality.  Tenderly, she took hold of Fox's hand and held it over her heart, between the round fullness of her voluminous breasts.  "Can you feel it too?" she whispered.

Fox recoiled and snatched his hand back.  Her face registered neither apology nor guilt.

"Please, do not be frightened.  I would never ask anything of you that you aren't ready to give.  I just had to tell you.  I never wanted anyone else so strongly in my entire life."  He could see soft pleading in her eyes.

He shook his head slowly.  She was right.  He could feel it too, but he couldn't give in.  Star's voice.  "Someone, I don't know who, wants to see which of us you'll fuck first." Never would he give in to another's machinations.  In that respect, he was in total agreement with Star.  He had spent all of his life being at the mercy of the whims of others.  It had to stop somewhere.  "You're not making it easy for me to refuse, Rose.  But you knew the answer before you even asked.  I can't.  Not with all of you here.  It just isn't right.  Especially if the others feel the same way you do." 

"I understand." Her voice was mournful, though he could tell she was trying to just sound resigned.  Sighing softly, she picked up her dressing gown and, quickly slipped it back over her head.  "If you reconsider--"

"I won't."

Sighing again, Rose stood up and stepped backward a few paces.  She was crying,  "No he visto nunca...un amor más poderoso...no he visto nunca..."

***

Star felt her body freeze in shock.  "What are you saying?"

The man did not speak, contemplating only the fiber of the cloth of the strange curtains.  After a moment, he approached her slowly, his hands slightly raised to show her that he did not mean her any harm.  He was tall, taller by far that Star had at first realized, and there was an aura of danger that even the scientist lacked.  This man would kill me if he wanted to without a second thought.  Choking down a sob of terror, Star rooted herself bravely to the floor (which was normal linoleum) and looked defiantly down at her bare feet.  From her downward stare, Star could see the finely tooled leather of the man's shoes.  He was so close to her now; she could feel the heat radiating off of his body.  Leaning forward slightly, the man rested his hand almost tenderly on her cheek and lowered his face down to her neck.  Star was paralyzed with fear.  He inhaled deeply.

"Ah.  Exquisite," he whispered, his breath warming Star's neck.

Abruptly, he stepped back, though his hand still rested on her cheek and faced the scientist who continued to stand uncomfortably in the corner.  "You've outdone yourself, Jacob, even I can feel it.  The match must be almost perfect."

The pudgy man swelled even more with pride.  "I do my best.  But sir, we must address her knowledge--"  There was nervousness in his high-pitched, whiny voice.

"Of course."  The handsome man turned his gaze back onto Star.  "You are a lovely child, Miss Scully.  Beautiful.  Proud.  Defiant.  Oh, yes, I can feel your anger.  You want to strike me, escape, lash us with questions, something to satisfy the burning passion within you.  Intelligent.  Intelligent enough to realize what is being done to you.  Don't worry, Mr. Jameston, I do not blame you for her knowledge.  Foolish though you may be, I am convinced that you would not so blatantly and purposefully subvert us by telling this child here of the experiment."

"Thank you, sir.  I greatly appreciate your understanding in this matter." The scientist's broad face looked relieved.

Feeling the man's hypnotic spell over her dissipate somewhat, Star raised her voice again, addressing the tall man that had so recently touched her.  "Why me?  Why did you choose me and not some other girl?  What can I possibly have that is so special?"

"Inquisitive nature.  Jameston, please be sure to note that on her profile." The man reached out for her again, this time embracing her chastely, like a relative.  "Can you not guess?  Does not that piercing, brilliant mind of yours not give you some kind of clue?  No?  Well, Miss Scully, allow me to give you a brief lesson on the choosing of a mate.  Don't blush, child.  As I'm sure you know, inbreeding can lead to a host of different hereditary diseases and abnormalities.  Incest is the one act banned by all known cultures.  It is also discouraged by nature herself.  There is a protein, one among hundreds of thousands whose creation lies within the four-letter alphabet of the universal language of life.  Every human being has a slightly different variation of this protein, and the more variation between them, the more different genetically the two people in question are.  It is a potent thing, this protein, and when two people with radically different proteins meet, nature herself conspires to bring them together.  How does she do it?  With scent, pheromones, my dear, sometimes not even on a conscious level.  Can you not feel it?  Can you not feel you body reacting even to me, when you were chosen not for me, but for one of my own flesh and blood?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."  Star turned her head to the side, but she could not escape the man.  "You're crazy."

But he wasn't crazy, and that was the problem.  Star understood every word that the man was saying, and it was that very simple fact that threw her spirit into turmoil.  He was right.  She could smell him, a musky, heady scent that enveloped her as surely as his arms did still, urging her to bury her face into his chest, just to give into her desire for him.  She could feel the attraction, and deep within her, a delicious ache unfolded and blossomed.  But it was nothing in comparison to what she had felt when she was in Fox's presence.  It went beyond anything so banal as a scent radiating off of his body.  No, her very soul ached for him, every fiber of her being screamed to her, commanded her to throw herself into his arms and try to merge bodily with him just to stop the torture.  That first time, when she had cradled him in her arms, alone, after all of the other girls had fallen asleep, she had kissed him tenderly on the lips as a sister might her elder brother.  He had felt like the part of her that she had always vaguely missed.  She had wanted to do more, but her conscience forbade it, and so she had attempted to ignore him, encasing herself in a shell of pride and hauntiness.  Then, he had taken her, in anger, unwillingly into his arms.  It was all that she could do not to melt into his embrace.  But still, she longed for him with an intensity that frightened her.

The deep, slightly scratchy voice of the man who held her recalled her from her thoughts.  "You believe me.  I can see it in your eyes.  Miss Scully, you now have a choice to make.  If you so desire, you can be returned to the others as you were...or, you may be released, if that is what you really want.  As I said before, it is not everyone who may control his or her destiny.  You, my dear, have this power.  You were right when you told Fox that he has to choose between the five of you, but you did not tell him why, and, I suspect, you simply do not know.  Well, allow me to enlighten you.

"We are looking for a mate, a partner, if you will, for Fox.  He needs a grounding influence, someone to control his various excesses, and, quite frankly, be there for him for as long as he should need her."

"So basically," the scientist interjected pointedly, "If you can get him to choose you, you'll be getting a one-way ticket to the rest of his life."

Star blinked and voiced the only question that came to mind.  No point in pretending to be young and stupid now.  "So, this attraction works both ways?"

Both men nodded.

"And the reason for the desire I feel is in my genes?"

Again, two nods.

Closing her eyes, Star tried to imagine what if would be like to love Fox.  He was a handsome, healthy young man, the kind of boy that her friends would gasp and sigh over.  When he spoke to her, he had looked directly into her eyes instead of looking her over, visually stripping her naked like some boys his age had been wont to do.  He actually seemed willing to respect her.  I don't want it, she had told him.  She had lied.  She did want it.  She wanted him to hold her in his arms, kiss her, make love to her.  But she was afraid.  She did not know the first thing about seducing men or drawing them to her.  She was just a gangly fourteen-year-old with no experience and even fewer curves.  Yet, if she didn't go back, she would probably never see him again, and she would have no chance at all of spending the rest of "his" life, existing side-by-side with a man that everything within her told her she belonged with forever. 

Star opened her eyes slowly.  A suspicion had arisen in the back of her mind.  She tilted her head up to better see the man that continued to cradle her affectionately in his arms.  Yes, it must be.  Gently, she disengaged herself.  "And you.  His father.  Do you condone what is going on here..." She hesitated, trying to find the right words.  "You are his keeper, his guardian.  Do you give your blessing to any union he might share with me?"

His eyes were emotionless.  There was no perceptible surprise or discomfort of any kind.  "You would not be here if it were otherwise."

It was decided.  "Fine.  I'll go back."  Star sank into one of the metal chairs.  She prayed to God that those four words would not be soon regretted.

Mr. Jameston clapped his hands together delightedly.  "Ah, what a wonderful opera!"  He threw back the curtain.  Behind it, Star could see the entirety of the chamber that she had been held prisoner until just recently.  The place in which she would soon be held prisoner again.  She could see and hear the others clearly.  Rose was singing with both Lily and Kitty listening intently.  Tem was shadow boxing a short distance away.  Fox sat far from the rest, running his hand slowly over the wall, pondering the marks Star had made on it.  Reluctantly, he closed the curtains again.  He seemed unwilling to hide his magnificent experiment. "Sir, should we blank her memory?"

Star gulped, refusing to allow the prospect of losing her memory affect her outwardly.

Fox's father shook his had slowly.  "No, I see no reason to.  What Miss Scully knows will not affect the experiment in the least now.  As long as we blank them all in the end, it should not be a problem."

"As you wish, sir."  The scientist turned to the enormous machine and rested his fingers on a keyboard embedded between the levers and knobs and gears and buttons and lights.  "Ready to go back?"  He addressed Star.

"Yes.  Send me back."  She watched him fearlessly as he punched in a complex code into the keyboard.  Star's world immediately began to spin and blur, eventually growing dark.

***

" 'Parting is all we know of Heaven and all we need of Hell.'  How right she is, it seems."

Lily turned to look Fox in the eye.  It had been 27 meals since the captives had last seen Star.  Fox had become withdrawn during that time, refusing to initiate conversation with anyone. Lily had intercepted him as he had been taking forlorn turns about the chamber.  He had ignored her, but she refused to be discouraged, following him closely.  "Do you even know who said that?  Do you care?"

"Lily, I wish I could find Emily Dickinson poetry to comfort me like you do.  But I don't.  And I get the feeling that Star disappeared because of what she said to me.  Somebody didn't like the fact that she knew what was going on here.  So, she was gotten rid of."

"You are blaming yourself."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Oh, Fox, you can't do that!  Don't you see?  You are trying to fix blame upon something, but since you don't know who brought us here, you can only blame yourself.  It is self-destructive.  You can't carry such a heavy burden with you.  You'll collapse!  Rose is right.  You shouldn't do this to yourself."

"Don't talk about Rose."

"No, let us talk about Rose.  Fox, I know what Rose said to you.  We all do.  But it really isn't necessary that we actually know...we feel it.  There is a longing for you, set deep within our bones.  It both draws and repulses.  It is as if our very souls were in rebellion.  Tem feels it and thinks herself weak.  Kitty feels it and doesn't understand what she is feeling.  Rose feels it and offered her body to you.  I feel it, and I'm telling you so because I respect you.  I'll tell you this also.  I think there is more to what is happening to us than even Star thought.  Star told you the effect of what we feel but not the reason, Fox!  Why are they doing this to us?  Why have they put us here, together?  Surely not just to confirm our attraction to you, for this love that we feel cannot be the contrivance of the heartless men that imprisoned us here!  How could they feel such passion?  Why, they must have known our potential responses when they put us together!  There must be something more, some reason that we love you!"

Fox reached out and hesitantly touched her hand.  "Thank you, Lily, for being honest.  I really do appreciate it, but...I don't understand why telling me this will make one bit of a difference."

Lily's bottom lip trembled for a moment, and she did not answer.

"What is it?  Is there anything else?" Fox asked her gently.

"Have you truly never considered it?" Lily shook her head in amazement.  "Can you be so pessimistic, so angry, so hurt, that you are blind?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I see you pain.  We all do, in our own fashion.  Could it be that we were meant to ease that pain, to heal you of your suffering?"

Fox started.  His eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with suspicion.  "What made you think that I am suffering?  You cannot see into my heart.  For all you know, I could be the happiest person in the world.  Besides, why should it matter to you?"

"But you aren't.  Please, don't try to hide yourself away.  This armor of cynicism and frigidity that you think is protection against all the world will only chafe and cramp your body until you know nothing else, and, when you try at last to rid yourself of it, you will find that you cannot.  Fox, you have to let someone in...it will swallow you if you do not."

"Go away, Lily.  Tell the others to say away too."

"Oh, Fox, what has made you so bitter and angry?"

"I won't say it again."

Lily nodded, retreating slowly from Fox's presence, no longer before him but still close.  He hunkered down and curled into a fetal position, hoping to find oblivion in sleep.

***

"We must do something.  Fox is in pain."

"I agree, Rose."

"But what can we do?"  Tempest snapped.  "We've lost so much already, and we have so very little to give.  Besides, we cannot coddle him like he's some child!  It just isn't right!"

"Do you remember when Fox was ranting?  Something about a Samantha...his sister.  Do you think something could have happened to her?"

"I don't 'think', Rose, I know."

"Did he tell you something?" Rose asked, her voice mingled concern, curiosity, and jealousy. 

"No, but he hurts so badly... when we lost Star, it was as if his heart were being ripped from his chest.  He lost his sister, my friends, somehow, someway, and he has never found her.  That much is quite clear to me."

"What are we supposed to do, then?  Act as replacements?!"

"Tempest, that was unworthy of you."

"I'm sorry, Rose, but I'm so tired of this place.  Is there not some way that we can escape it?"

"We've been over this before.  If any of us knew a way out of here, surely we would be gone."

"If only Fox could overcome his shame long enough to tell us what it was that Star knew.  I suspect that Star's disappearance is somehow related to what she deduced from our surroundings."

"That in itself worries me terribly, Lily.  What if Star were punished from that knowledge, and the light took her away to her death?  ¡Madre de dios!  What can we do, other than wait and pray?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid, but maybe we--"

Lily suppressed a gasp of surprise as Kitty, heretofore utterly silent, her face that of a solemn but uncomprehending child, shrieked and leapt into Rose's arms.  She continued to wail loudly, and Lily feared that she was in actual physical pain, though there did not appear to be any wounds upon the golden child's body.

***

[MISSING TEXT]

***

Groaning, Fox lifted his face from the scratchy surface that abraded the tender skin of his cheek.  Please.  Not again.  To his utter shock, he sight registered not the strange chamber of foul experimentation, but the front yard of his home in Martha's Vineyard on a balmy, summer morning.  He stared at his surroundings dazedly for a moment and stood up.  The sun, a beautiful, red-orange globe, rose in the eastern skies, and he felt an inexplicable pang of nostalgia.

Yet there was something about the hue of that life-giving orb that made him catch is breath.  She must be here somewhere; she had promised.  "Star!  Star, where are you?  Star?  Star..."  In a mixture of horror and sharp disappointment, he realized that he was alone.  "Star?  Oh, why aren't you here?"  A vague ache opened in his heart and spread painfully down his body.  He doubled over for a moment, trying desperately to catch is breath, and fell back to the ground.

"Fox, what are you doing?  What did I tell you?  You'll catch cold if you spend the night outside."  His mother ran to his side and knelt down beside his prone form.  "Look at you.  You're all wet and dirty.  Your father's coming home today from DC; I want you to look nice for him.  Let's go inside.  You can wash up."

"Oh, Mom!" Fox leapt abruptly up from his bed of dew-sprinkled leaves and grass.  "I met the most wonderful girl!" Memories of a lovely, flame-tressed girl challenging him in anger, smiling at him in friendship, laughing with him, sharing his pain, and then, finally bound to him in a universal act of love so profound that he knew that he could have no other welled up so strongly that the momentary pain was forgotten and he staggered backward a step with barely suppressed joy.  "And she...we...I...I don't remember."  Gasping, he rubbed his eyes violently with the backs of his hands.  As quickly has they had been recalled, the images from the depth of his brain were utterly gone, almost as though they had never been.  "Why don't I remember?!"  Desperately, Fox strove to hang onto the final threads of his memory, only to feel them slide all the more.  He advanced on his mother and grabbed her by the shoulders, not understanding his sudden anger.

Her face, prematurely aged, stared, confused, at him.  She was so weak, so tired, even though she was barely over forty years.  Fox felt immediate guilt.  He didn't understand why he was trying to hurt her as if his lack of memory were her fault.  He had always known a sort tenderness toward her; he wanted to protect her fromt the horrors of life.  Changing his angry seizure to a gentle embrace, he enfolded his mother, rocking slowly back and forth.  "I'm sorry, so sorry, Mom."

"Fox, what is it?  Tell me."

"No, never mind.  It isn't important.  I'm sorry."

"Come inside then."

***

Fox fled immediately to his room and sat heavily down at the desk that he had once shared with Samantha when they were both very young.  Scattering the application forms to Oxford thoughtlessly to the floor, he ripped out a piece of paper from a drawer and grabbed a nearby pen.  He had to write it down.  He had to.

"Why don't I remember?" he sobbed helplessly.  He couldn't even recall her face.  All that was left of the raging flood of love that had once overtaken his mind was a faint, sluggish trickle that was drying even as he sat there.  The fire of her hair was dying, the ice in her eyes melting.  Her brilliance, extinguished.  The last thread of remembrance, strained almost to snapping.

He slammed his head against the desk and sobbed helplessly.  Tears rolled unabashedly down his face, pooling under his chin in a crystalline bead of sorrow.  Despair twisted his gut like a vice.  Letting the pain rip through him, he lifted his face to the ceiling and let out a silent cry of pure anguish that went on until his lungs burned with the strain.  He had kept his date with destiny but she had failed to arrive at the meeting place.

"Fate, you can be so cruel."  It was a soft whisper as his hand lifted the pen on its own accord.  Then, everything was gone, and his head fell forward.

***

His son was safe and whole in his bedroom, sleeping fitfully at his desk.  There was no physical indication of the ordeal that he had so recently endured masking his face.  Stepping closer, Bill Mulder touched the soft, brown hair of his son tenderly.  He is such a studious boy.  Not two hours after being returned, he's back at this old desk.  Sighing softly, the older man glanced nonchalantly at what his son had been working on before he had fallen asleep.  What he saw made his throat close in horror.

It was a tearstained scrap of paper with a drawing of a five-pointed star.

Cursing silently, Bill Mulder snatched the paper from underneath Fox's protective grasp and threw it into the wastebasket. 

***

"Nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted."

He knew she was coming and had known for a long time.  He had been expecting it really; they needed a spy, and the little woman with the ice blue eyes seemed to be almost too perfect.  Did they really expect her to be any different from the others that they had sent to him before?  He had done his homework, and he knew all about her. 

Her name was Dana Katherine Scully, daughter of Capt. William and Margaret Scully, red hair, blue eyes, 5'3", 123 lbs.  Two brothers, one sister.  She was a medical doctor, but she chose not to practice.  Skepticism and scientific rationalism radiated around her like a halo of golden light.  She embodied everything that he had come to despise over the course of the years.  He was sure he'd hate her.

She let herself into his office.  Obviously independent.  He supposed she was pretty, in a "doctorish", preppy sort of way.  But why did he care?  He disliked her already.  "Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.  I've heard a lot about you."  Her voice was a rich alto, sweet and cool.  It had a gloss of amused reproach, almost as if she had sensed his prejudices.

Mulder turned around from the slides that he had been studying and shook her hand.  She had a firm grasp.  Unusual.  He gazed up at her.  He felt the glib words that he had been about to voice lodge themselves somewhere halfway between his lungs and mouth and stay there, leaving him momentarily speechless.  He can't know her.  It isn't possible.  Yet, there was something about her, something that he couldn't quite place, like a scent perhaps.  It's a trap, a part of his mind screamed to him wildly.  She has been put here to seduce you, distract you from the work!  But no.  Such an idea was paranoid, even for him.  Her expression was calm, completely lacking overt sexuality of any kind.  With a sudden, inexplicable jolt, he knew that she would be there for him, to lift him bodily out of the darkness of his own mind, to protect him, to love him.  Feeling the beginnings of a cold sweat, Mulder's heart began to race madly.  Get a hold of yourself, no sense in confirming what we all already know, ol' buddy...you're going head over heels over the deep end, he admonished silently, furious at his unexpected reaction.  His mind calmed, and for a single moment, she was beautiful as sunlight, pure as freshly fallen snow, strong as a proud lioness...and as distant and unapproachable as the North Star.

And then, the vision was gone, and the forgetfulness reasserted itself.  Mulder let go of her hand.

 

END


End file.
